Universal serial bus (USB) is an industry standard that defines cables, connectors, and protocols for connection, communication, and power supply between computing devices and their peripherals. Currently available peripherals that utilize USB include, but are not limited to: mice, joysticks, printers, scanners, digital cameras, webcams, modems, speakers, telephones, smartphones, storage devices, and network connections. Since the original USB 1.0 specification was introduced in January 1996, USB has grown in popularity and has largely replaced interfaces such as serial ports, parallel ports, and the various ad-hoc proprietary interfaces. For the user of a computing device, the USB standard has improved ease of use in several ways. First, the USB interface is self-configuring, so the user does not need to adjust settings such as speed or data format on the computing device or on the USB interface. Second, USB connectors can be standardized and integrated with the computing device so that any peripheral can use any available socket. Third, the USB interface can immediately be used upon connecting the peripheral, without requiring the computing device to be rebooted.
Some limitations of the USB standard relate to the currently available hardware components used to form a USB connection. In many instances, connectors lack the structure necessary to form a secure connection that can withstand pulling forces or torques due to movement of the peripheral device. Failure to retain a secure connection results in termination of the communication between the devices, and may further result in physical damage to one or more of the components. Accordingly, there is a need for new USB connectors capable of retaining a secure connection in response to applied forces and torques to the connector.